1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an array substrate and a display device including the same, and more particularly, to an array substrate having a display area and a non-display area and a display device including the array substrate.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic light-emitting display (OLED) may include an array substrate having a display area and a non-display area located outside the display area. Such a display device may include a plurality of pixels in the display area as basic elements for displaying an image, and each of the pixels may include a switching device to operate independently.
In LCDs or OLEDs, the array substrate is used as a circuit board for driving each pixel independently. Gate wirings delivering scan signals, data wirings delivering image signals, thin-film transistors (TFTs), and various organic or inorganic insulating layers are disposed on the array substrate. Of these elements, each of the TFTs includes a gate electrode which is a portion of a gate wiring, a semiconductor layer which forms a channel, a source electrode which is a portion of a data wiring, and a drain electrode. Therefore, each of the TFTs may serve as a switching device.
In the non-display area located outside the display area, a plurality of wirings connected to gate lines or data lines of the display area are disposed. The wirings may extend in various forms and may have respective ends connected to a plurality of pads included in a pad unit in a lower part of the array substrate.
The array substrate may be exposed to various impacts from its manufacturing process. For example, when the array substrate is transported or when various tests are performed on the array substrate, impacts may be applied to the array substrate. These impacts may create cracks in the substrate. The cracks tend to grow or propagate through inorganic insulating layers disposed on the substrate. That is, when cracks are created in a part of the non-display area, they may propagate to the display area along the inorganic insulating layers, thereby degrading the reliability of the display area. To solve these difficulties, various technical attempts are being made to provide an array substrate structured in such a way to be resistant to impact and suppress the propagation of cracks created in the non-display area.